Excess rains, encroachments reason for flooding in Bengaluru: Centre

The Centre on Thursday said Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) informed the Government of India that combinations of factors like excessive rainfall in past few years, rapid urbanisation, encroachments is resulting in urban flooding of Bangalore.

Replying to Hassan Lok Sabha member Prajwal Revanna in Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Jal Shakti Prahlad Patel said that demand for providing basic infrastructure like, urban transport, roads, layout formation, SEZs and IT Parks has increased considerably, resulting in depletion of groundwater and causing flooding. 859.90 km length of primary and secondary drains serves BBMP area for storm water drainage.

The report titled “Inventorization of Water Bodies in Bengaluru Metropolitan Area” was prepared in March 2018 by the Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI), Bengaluru.

The report categorises 1,521 water bodies in Bengaluru Metropolitan Area under three categories based on area: Kere/Lake (those with area more than 3 acre); Katte/Gokatte (1-3 acre); and, Kunte (less than 1 acre), the Minister said.

"According to the report, over the years, 102 of 497 lakes 115 of 200 Gokattes, and 620 of 824 Kuntes, have fallen to disuse due to low water inflows and siltation owing to degradation of catchment area, eutrophication from sewage inflows, disposal of solid waste, lack of maintenance, etc," the written answer said.

"In terms of area, so disused 837 water bodies constitute 11.17 per cent. The remaining water bodies that constitute 88.83 per cent area are used for fishing, cattle feeding, religious activities, washing, recreational activities," he said.

"BBMP has informed that there is no disparity shown in removal of encroachment on storm water drains/rajakaluve in Bangalore city. The encroachment are being removed as soon as the relevant surveys are being conducted by Assistant Director of Land Records and demolition orders are issued by the concerned Tahasildar," the Minister said.